


i'll find you again

by yodalorian



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Self-Sacrifice, Terminal Illnesses, steggy parallels, this is honestly super depressing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28317072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yodalorian/pseuds/yodalorian
Summary: Despite everything, Sokka and Suki try desperately to find each other and stay together.
Relationships: Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: Gifts for Friends





	i'll find you again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crazycake123](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazycake123/gifts).



> merry christymas to you, christy

Suki snapped her fan open, slipping easily into a warrior’s stance. “Get out of here. We’ll hold them off.”

Sokka hesitated. He didn’t know why. Traveling with Aang meant stopping at a new village every day, meeting people he would never see again. But there was something about this girl, her cool toughness, the kiss that still burned on his cheek.

“Will...will I see you again?”

Suki glanced back at him. “Maybe. I’ve never been a big believer in destiny, but...maybe.” She vanished among the thickening clouds of smoke.

The wind stung Sokka’s eyes as Appa soared away, Kyoshi Island shrinking into the distance. He searched for a glimpse of the auburn haired girl with the painted face, but she didn’t appear among the blackened wreckage of the town.

_ I’ll find you again. I promise. _

* * *

“This is where I say goodbye.”

Sokka turned to look at Suki. “You’re leaving?”

“I have to get back to the other Kyoshi Warriors. I only came to make sure you safely crossed.”

“It feels like we just reunited.”

She stepped closer to him. “Well, you managed to find me once. Maybe you can do it again.”

Before Sokka lost his nerve, he leaned in and kissed her. “I will. I promise.”

* * *

“Sokka!” Suki’s face brightened and she threw her arms around him. “I knew you’d come.”

He grinned. “Did you doubt me?”

“You know, it was hard. Boiling Rock tends to wear you down.” She kissed him. “But no. You did promise, after all.”

* * *

The eel hound snorted impatiently, turning its snout up towards the clear blue sky. A faint orange tinge appeared in it, steadily growing, like blood seeping into water. The comet was coming.

“You ready?” Suki asked.

Sokka shrugged. “Ready to fight Zuko’s superpowered dad and prevent the apocalypse? Sure. Why not. I do this before breakfast every day.”

Suki cracked a smile, but her worried expression quickly returned.

“Hey. It’s gonna be okay,” Sokka said. “You know what, after we survive all this, I’ll take you on a date.”

“A date?”

“Yeah. A real actual date. Not kissing goodbye, not sneaking into each other’s tents as midnight. A real date.”

“That would be nice.”

Sokka squeezed her hand. “We just stick together through all of this, stay alive, and then we’ll go on that date.”

Suki squeezed back. “Alright. But I’m holding you to that.”

“I’d be offended if you didn’t.”

* * *

They ran for their lives. The deafening screech of tearing metal pounded in their ears as airships crashed and broke apart. The air was hot and ashy and deadly shrapnel flew at them, but Sokka wiped the sweat from his eyes and kept going. 

They weren’t fast enough. Just as they reached the prow, the groaning airship finally gave up, shattering. Tearing Suki away from Sokka and Toph.

“No!” Sokka screamed, lunging for her hand, but it was too late. She fell away from them, vanishing into the chaos and destruction. 

“No,” he sobbed, sinking to his knees. He wanted to give up there. They weren’t supposed to get separated again. They were supposed to stick together, but now she was gone. 

“Come on!” Toph pulled on his arm. “We have to keep moving!”

She was right. Reluctantly, trying to hold on to what little shred of hope he had left, Sokka kept going.

* * *

Sokka didn’t believe it possible, but somehow, it was just downhill after that. He got separated from Toph too, lost his boomerang and sword. Still, they’d managed to take down almost all the airships. All except for one. The one Sokka had hijacked.

Hijacked was generous. If hijacking meant limping into the cockpit and barricading himself inside, trying to catch his breath while angry firebenders tried to melt down the door. He managed to lock the bay doors to stop the incineration of the Earth Kingdom, at least temporarily, and then slumped to the floor, wincing as pain shot through his very likely broken leg. 

Can’t break down yet. Break down later. He had a job to finish.

The radio communications crackled, and a voice came through. Fuzzy with interference, but unmistakable. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

Sokka dragged himself up. “Suki?” It was impossible, but a wild, desperate hope seized him.

“Sokka!”

Tears of relief streamed down his face. “Are you okay? I thought I lost you.”

“I’m fine. Managed to make it down to the ground. I’m okay.” She was lying. He could hear that her voice was tight with pain. “I found this radio among the wreckage and started trying the frequencies to see if I could find you and Toph.”

“Okay,” Sokka breathed. “That’s good. That’s good.” A million thoughts raced through his head, but at least he knew Suki was relatively safe.

“Where are you?”

“The last airship.”

“Oh.” She didn’t want to say it, but it was a bad situation. The iron door holding out the firebenders was already red-hot, and Sokka bet the bay doors were as well. At any moment, his enemies would charge in, kill him, and continue the genocide. He and his friends had taken out most of the fleet, but there were still enough firebenders on this airship to wipe out most of the western region of the Earth Kingdom, especially with the power of Sozin’s Comet. Still millions of lives that would be lost today.

“I’m gonna have to take down the ship.”

“What?” Suki’s voice turned frantic. “No!”

“We’re out of time. It’s the only way. It has to be somewhere uninhabited. Minimum collateral damage.” Sokka knew the maps by heart after poring over them for days. “The south pole isn’t too far from here, actually.”

“Sokka, you’ll die!”

He tried to smile grimly. “Maybe not. Maybe I’ll get lucky like Aang and just be frozen for a hundred years, until two annoying kids find me.” But Aang was the Avatar and Sokka was just Sokka. No bending and no magic powers, just a broken leg now.

“Please don’t do this.” Suki clutched the radio, choked with grief. “Please.”

“It’s the South Pole. I’m just going home. Maybe I’ll say hi to Gran Gran.” He was trying to be lighthearted, like always, but his voice trembled. He was scared.

Suki desperately tried to think of some way to change his mind, but she knew there was nothing. He was first and foremost a strategist. Sacrificing one life to save millions was an obvious choice. In the cold math of war, it didn’t matter that the one life meant everything to her.

She watched the airship, a tiny red spot up in the burning sky, twist and change course.

“Don’t worry about me. I still gotta take you on that date.” 

“Our date.”

“Yeah. Our date. I was thinking tomorrow, Ember Island. Meet me there right at dawn. We’ll have the whole day for just us.”

Suki choked back a sob. “Ember Island. You better not be late.”

“I won’t. I promise. You know I don’t break my promises.”

“I know.” She wasn’t able to say anything else.

“I’ll see you there, then. I will. I love y-- _ zzzzz--” _

The radio crackled and fell silent. He was out of range. Suki watched the airship vanish into the swirling icy clouds on the horizon. She laid down among the broken iron bones of ships and screamed until she couldn’t anymore.

* * *

They searched the South Pole for days. Every spirits-damned patch of ice. Suki didn’t sleep. But the snow fell too fast and too thick, burying everything under its glittering perfect whiteness. There was no sign of him. He had simply disappeared.

Even years later, they said she would sometimes sit on the beach throughout the cold nights. Shivering, waiting for someone who never came.

* * *

Cold. So, so cold.

Cold that settled so deep in his bones that he doubted it would ever thaw. Whispers and images floated through his mind in half-formed dreams. There was something he needed to do. A promise.

He felt ice liquefying and being drawn off of him. Warmth curled over his skin, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Voices and faces of strangers swirled around him, but shifting and blurry, like he was underwater. He slipped back into unconsciousness.

Suddenly, a tingling spread through his body. An uncomfortably familiar tingling. A sharp pain burst in his chest as his heart was forced to reawaken and continue its endless duty. His muscles tensed and writhed as life was forced back into them. Someone was bloodbending him.

Sokka jolted awake with a gasp. He was alive. Every part of his body ached, but he was alive. He looked up at a white-haired Water Tribe woman, still moving her hands over him, pushing his sluggish blood along.

Hama was his first thought. She was the only bloodbending old lady he knew. But this clearly wasn’t her. There was something he recognized in her eyes, the way she set her jaw…

“Katara?” he croaked.

She turned to him and smiled, tears glistening in her eyes. “Welcome back, Sokka.”

No. This was too weird. This was way, way too weird. His little sister…

He glanced around at the four strangers who were also in the room. “Who…”

“These are the people that found you.” Katara pointed at the guy who had been firebending to try to warm Sokka. “Mako.” And then, “Asami, and Bolin.” And then the girl who had been waterbending the ice off of him. “Korra. The new Avatar.”

“The new Avatar…” Sokka’s mind was spinning. This was too much to take in. “But Aang....”

Katara gave him a sad smile. “You’ve been frozen for seventy years. The world has changed a lot.”

* * *

Sokka wanted to pass out after that conversation, so he did. He spent the next few days drifting in and out of consciousness. Katara stayed by his side the whole time, working her healing and telling him about a world he no longer recognized. 

When he felt like he could talk again, the first thing he said was “Where’s Suki?”

He met Suki’s daughter, Yong. She was a nice woman. He recognized her eyes, her hair. But there were pieces of her, her nose, the curve of her lips, that he didn’t recognize.

She told him she didn’t think her mother had ever gotten over him.

When he could walk, Yong took him to the home Suki had retired to on Ember Island. Yong told him quietly that Suki was very sick. They were expecting her to pass soon. Yong warned him that Suki might not recognize him.

He limped into the darkened bedroom. Tears welled in his eyes at the sight of the frail old woman, wrapped in blankets. He sat next to her and took her withered hand in his. “Hi, Suki.” His voice broke.

She looked up at him. For a brief, terrifying moment, she frowned in confusion. But her eyes brightened. “Sokka,” she whispered. “You came back.”

“Of course.” He tried to smile even though tears were streaming down his cheeks. “I promised. Did you doubt me?”

Suki shook her head. “Not for a moment.”

He took her hand and pressed it to his lips, trying to stop the shuddering sobs that shook his shoulders.

Suki reached up and brushed his cheek. “I’m glad I got to see you. One last time.”

“No.” He gripped her hand tightly. “No, come on, you’ll make it through this. You’re the strongest person I know.”

Suki took a rattling breath. “No. My time is over. I was just holding on for you, Sokka. I was just waiting for you to come back. And now you’re here. Now I’m ready.”

“No. No, please, come on.” He couldn’t breathe. “I just found you again. Don’t leave me.”

“I’m sorry, Sokka. I wish we had more time.”

He wrapped her in his arms, sobbing into her hair. He kissed her on the forehead and held her for hours, until Suki breathed her last breath. 

He had promised, but in the end, it hadn’t been enough.

**Author's Note:**

> if you want you can imagine an epilogue where the krew discovers time travel and sokka goes back
> 
> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


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